Some say Fantasy Football is just a game.. We strongly disagree.

Leopard’s Letdowns – The Champ Struggles.

The 2015-16 Premier League season produced a number of footballing shocks. Leicester winning the title, Chelsea finishing a lowly 8th with Mourinho getting sacked for the second time, Newcastle getting relegated and Sunderland surviving yet again. Most notably however, a relatively unknown fantasy football player joined a cash league for the very first time and showed everyone how to truly fantasy your football.However, in a situation strikingly similar to the current Premier League champions, I, as the current Fantasy Football champion, am struggling to keep up with the early pace setters in the 2016-17 season.

Though it’s very early doors, I find myself 40 points behind the leader and having used my wildcard, find myself having to dig deep to find unearthed gems (Hello Joe Allen you lovely long haired freak) to add into my team.

Having ditched the ineffective Ibrahimovic for the volcanic hot head that is Diego Costa alongside the ever reliable Mr Sergio Aguero, I now have a lethal strike force to hopefully pull me through these dark times.

Add to that, a midfield 5 that consists of Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez, Heung Min Son, Etienne Capoue and Roberto Firmino, one would expect at least 3 goals each weekend.

It was though, my defence that was key to getting the 2nd best points total for the previous game week. Up until game week 6, my faith in Hector Bellerin was very questionable. With a hefty price of £6.5 million and the tag of being the most expensive defender in the game, he had returned my team with a lowly points return of 15 points. Arsenal vs Chelsea though was the turning point. Big Bellerz picked up a massive 11 points and has continued on that good form, cumulating with a clean sheet against Middlesbrough and an extra bonus point. I expect his good form to continue in the coming weeks with Sunderland, Stoke, West Ham and Bournemouth within the next 6 games.

Speaking of Bournemouth, their clean sheet against Spurs added an extra 14 points to be overall score for the game week, with Adam Smith and Artur Boruc picking up some very unexpected points.

And to finish off my team, the beast that is Geoff Cameron rewarded my team with a nice haul of 7 points after Stokes 2-0 over Hull.

Previous seasons of Fantasy Football have seen the strikers and midfielders fly away from defenders in terms of overall points haul, and although that may still be the case come the end of the season, let’s not forget that the “dirtier” side of football, that when given some attention can make or break your game week.